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Ana Schuyler
Ana Schuyler is Philomena Develsbourne's maternal grandmother. Life Early life Ana Schuyler was born Anna Louisa Lahaije on September 12, 1903, in Maastricht, the Netherlands, to Pieter Lahaije and Johanna Lahaije. Her father was a well-to-do painter twenty-years her mother's senior, and he died a year after Ana had been born. With the fortune that she had amassed as his widow, Johanna established a brothel in Maastricht and became a powerful local figure. Ana was often neglected, and was often put under the care of Johanna's prostitutes, whom were more motherly to her than her own. In 1924, at the age of 21, Ana fled from her home in Maastricht to immigrate to the United States, sailing on a migrant ship from Hoek van Holland, Rotterdam, for six days. Her mother had caught her leaving but had done nothing to prevent it. A mistake in the immigration papers made her name with only one n''. '''Adulthood' Ana successfully started a new life in the United States in the small town of Batavia, New York, as a seamstress. She met and developed a close relationship with Lucas Schuyler, who lived next to her boarding house, and got married that year. She moved in with her husband's family and had their first child, Coralea Schuyler, in 1925. Mary Schuyler soon followed in 1926, and Eleanor Schuyler was born in 1928. Due to the pressures of the Great Depression, Lucas and Ana divorced in 1936, and Lucas took a chance to relocate to the Dutch East Indies (to pursue the chance for adventure that his father did not give him), taking Nor with him, and married an Indonesian woman named Rosminah in 1937. The family kept close contact, however, and spent their holidays in Indonesia and the US. They lived in Bandung, with Lucas under the name Adam Sutansyah and Eleanor Laila Mulyati. During the Japanese occupation, 'Adam', as he planned to, assimilated into Indonesian culture and worked as an architect. In Batavia, Ana lived with her two daughters and former mother-in-law, Eleanor Schuyler (whom became her 'adoptive' mother) and established a thriving career as a seamstress and dressmaker in New York. Thomas Schuyler, Adam's father, was a traveler and explorer and only came home during the holidays. In 1944, her middle daughter Mary married a Dutch man by the name of Gerrit Joosten and left for the Netherlands (much to Ana's dismay). She divorced him in 1945. Her younger daughter, Nor, got married in the year of the independence of Indonesia, in 1945, and moved to Paterosari with her husband Prabowo Mangkoenonadimedjo. In 1946, the family received news that Thomas died by elephant trampling in Tanzania, on the same day that Lucas' first grandchildren, Philomena and Matilda, were born. His body was sent back to be buried in Batavia, and Lionel Schuyler, Lucas' brother, stayed with the family until 1950, when he continued travelling around the world. During those five years, Ana had a love affair with Lionel. Later life Ana was very close with her daughters, except for Nor. Lea, the eldest daughter, still lived with her in Batavia, and she frequently wrote her middle daughter Mary, whom had a lot of marital troubles while living in the Netherlands. In 1951, Mary married a man by the name of Richard van der Plaas, only to divorce him in 1955. She married again later that year to Harry Vogel, and divorced in 1957. She married her last husband, Viktor Versteeg, in 1958. They separated in 1963. Adam died in September 28, 1965, after his 63rd birthday, and was buried in Indonesia, with Ana, Eleanor, and Lea attending his funeral in Paterosari. Eleanor, Ana, and Lea stayed around for the birth of Matilda's first child with her husband Hugo Willem, Anneke Willem, who was born on October 15, when they took a picture of five generations of women in their family. In 1966, Lea took a job as a teacher in Miami, Florida, and moved there for good. In 1972, Ana attended her granddaughter Philomena's wedding to Phillip Develsbourne in Florida. Eleanor died a few months later, at the age of 94 and of natural causes in her sleep, leaving Ana to live all by herself. Lionel came for his mother's funeral, and so Lionel and Ana rekindled their love affair. Lionel soon left again to travel to Eastern Europe. Mary got back together with Viktor in 1977, only for Viktor to die a year later in 1978. In 1984, Mary was involved in a car accident and became a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair. Mary remained in Amsterdam after this time, under the care of nurses. Ana could never visit her because she despised the Netherlands. Ana experienced a series of illnesses in 1985 and became bed-ridden in 1987. All of her daughters visited her in 1988 to settle the estate, and she died a few weeks later, at the age of 85, of a heart attack. Her family, including those from the Netherlands and Indonesia came to her funeral. She was cremated and buried in Batavia, but asked for some parts of her ashes to be scattered in her birthplace, Maastricht. Category:Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Deceased Characters